Edible Apple

All Things D has the rundown.

Writing for the Motley Fool, Meena Krishamsetty relays a quote from former Apple CEO John Scully regarding Apple’s current business operations.

On the current situation Apple is in, Sculley had this to say: ‘I think they’re going through a very significant change now in terms of product cycles. Traditionally Apple introduces products once a year; now it’s really introducing products twice a year. The complexity of that from a supply chain is immense, and Apple seems to be doing it well. So, I think that people are underestimating just how well Apple is run, and just how successful the company can be when it gets to that twice-a-year product introduction cycle.’

And if you need an incentive to snatch up some Apple shares, it’s worth noting that Apple’s P/E is dreadfully low compared to the market at large.

Sculley’s comments here seem to agree with the unheralded notion that Tim Cook is a supply chain wizard; on the subject of Apple’s valuation, the former Cupertino CEO said that “the question is: does it still deserve a Steve Jobs premium?” to which he paraphrastically answers ‘yes,’ due to the fact that Cook has a clear product leader in Jony Ive.

When looking at the numbers ourselves, we can’t help but notice that the stock’s recent selloff may have shaved off most of that so-called ‘Steve Jobs premium,’ making now a great time to get in if you hold the same conviction as Sculley does. Between 2006 and 2010, AAPL shares traded at an average of 25.7 times trailing twelve month earnings, at a premium of 64% above the S&P. At its present price in the $586 range, however, the stock currently sports an earnings multiple of 13.3X, or a near-10% discount to the broader market averages.

Steve Jobs was certainly irreplaceable, but it’s important to remember that Apple is a company tens of thousands of employees and countless scores of talented engineers, executives, and designers. Apple’s executive team is top notch and Tim Cook and co. proved to be quite adept at maneuvering Apple through those periods when Steve Jobs was gone for months tending to medical issues. As such, there’s no reason to think that Tim Cook can continue to steer the ship into innovative and ever more profitable waters going forward.

via MF

IDC recently increased its 2012 forecast for the worldwide tablet market to 122.3 million, up from a previous estimate of 117.1 million. And looking forward, they anticipate tablet sales in 2016 to reach unit levels of 282.7 million units.

And breaking things up by marketshare, the research company anticipates Apple’s share of the tablet market will drop from 56.3% in 2011 to 53.8% in 2012. As for Windows based tablets, the IDC estimates that it will have about 2.9% of the market in 2012 and 10.2% of the market in 2016. That’s a bold prediction for a tablet that seems to have landed in the tablet market space with a resounding thump.

With all this talk of a fiscal cliff and whatnot, a number of Apple executives are cashing in their stock options. The San Jose Business Journal reported earlier this week on a filing to the SEC made by Apple this Tuesday wherein it was revealed that newly promoted Apple executive Eddy Cue sold a large portion of his Apple shares for a grand total of $8.76 million.

Just one week ago, Apple’s Senior VP of Technologies, Bob Mansfield, sold 35,000 shares of the company stock valued at nearly $20.4 million, according to an SEC filing.

This doesn’t mean that either executive will be without shares for long since Mansfield is promised more restricted stock units as soon as this June and Cue as soon as August.

via SJBJ

Now this would be a doozy. With literally hundreds of millions of subscribers, and quite easily the largest mobile carrier on the planet, China Mobile is undeniably a golden egg in any handset manufacturers efforts to stimulate tremendous growth.

Rumors of the iPhone 5 coming to China Mobile have persisted for some time, and indeed, the iPhone is already available on both China Telecom and China Unicom. Further, with the Chinese government recently authorizing the sale of the iPhone 5, all the pieces are in place for Apple to make a huge splash with China Mobile. Of course, Apple would have to tweak its hardware to make sure the iPhone runs on China Mobile’s proprietary network technology, but that’s really a small price to pay for all those new customers.

BGR reports:

According to Morgan Stanley’s Huberty, who is cited a number of times in the article, China Mobile will likely begin carrying the iPhone in the second half of 2013. If Apple’s older, low-priced iPhone models are picked up by China Mobile, Huberty thinks Apple stock will explode to as much as $980 a share.

Apple is currently trading at $547 a share, so a rise to $980 would provide quite a nice return for investors.

Bloomberg reports:

By itself, Apple’s iTunes (which was just updated) and App stores, which hawk everything from movies and music to books and newspaper subscriptions, make more money than The New York Times; Simon & Schuster, which publishes the best-selling “Steve Jobs” biography; Warner Bros. film studios, which owns the popular Batman film franchise; and Time Inc., the largest magazine publisher in the U.S.

Combined.

Apple’s media storefronts took in more than $8.5 billion for the fiscal year ending in September. Put together, the revenue of the above-mentioned media companies only adds up to $8.2 billion for the same period, about $300 million less than Apple.

Computerworld reports:

After a month on the market, Windows 8’s usage uptake resembles 2007’s Vista — ultimately a poor performer for Microsoft — rather than the eventually successful Windows 7, a Web measurement company said Saturday.

According to Net Applications, 1.2% of all Windows PCs ran Windows 8 during November, more than double its share the month before..

While Windows 8 uptake rate edged Vista’s first full month — that OS ended February 2007 with a 1% share of all Windows systems — the new edition actually jumped less than the problem- and perception-plagued Vista. From January to February 2007, Vista increased its share more than five times, compared to the doubling of Windows 8.

Ah Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and formerly of Nirvana. It’s hard not to like this guy as he seems pretty darn cool, but I can’t lie, I just never got that into the Foo Fighters. But no matter, here’s the Foo Fighters front man with his trusty MacBook Air (running Mountain Lion no less) all up in Reddit.

Ars Technica reports:

Samsung has argued the foreman, Velvin Hogan,withheld key facts—including that he was sued by Seagate Technology. That company is Hogan’s former employer and it is now partly owned by Samsung. Hogan also didn’t disclose that he filed for bankruptcy in connection with that litigation. In post-trial interviews, jurors said he described his own participation in the patent process during their deliberations. Hogan himself is a patent owner.

The company also insisted that Apple disclose what it knew about Hogan and when it knew it. “In order to have a full and fair opportunity to reply to Apple’s ‘waiver’ argument, Samsung is entitled to know when Apple first learned of Mr. Hogan’s undisclosed Seagate litigation, including whether it knew of Mr. Hogan’s misstatements to the Court prior to Samsung’s post-trial motion and nonetheless concealed that knowledge from the Court,” wrote Samsung lawyers on October 30.

This is a great video thanks to extremely clever editing and music. What we have is Steve Jobs introducing the iPad on Dragons Den, a UK show that is very similar to the US-based Shark Tank and involves entrepeneurs pitching their ideas to a handful of multi-millionaires.

Ever want to see the calm, cool, collected and confident Steve Jobs sweat a few bullets thanks to selective editing, well wait no longer.

The Channel reports that Barclays Bank has bought upwards of 8500 iPads.

The buy, made with dealer Insight UK, is believed to be one of the largest roll outs of the iPad or indeed any tablet in the UK finance sector, and signals the growing acceptance of the tab tech in corporate land.

A’ha! It appears that Samsung has a man working on the inside.